07.05.21

Sujan came over to save my dignity by giving me a lesson on preparing to meet Nepali people and the need to wear shoes and an ironed shirt. Sujan has been a real blessing saving my butt more than once by explaining Nepali culture to me. The first time was when we ate a meal together he noticed that I was eating very slowly and kind of funny. He proceeded to explain what I was doing wrong and coached me into using my thumb to push the food into my mouth. Needless to say, my eating exponentially increased after that. I no longer had to discretely suck all the food into my mouth.
So Sandip graciously ironed my shirt before heading out. I met Bhushan at 1045. He's a really nice guy. And also extremely busy. Everything at the Environment and Public Health Organization is pretty laxed - but they do pretty good work.

Everything is so efficient in a country with no rules. No ethical boundaries to jump through, no bureaucracy, no nothing. So efficient. Today I was oriented, scanned a couple documents, wrote a proposal, showed someone - got their input and convinced them to help out, then got to do some water testing - this may or may not have been a good thing. Some of the water samples reeked. At first I thought it was because I farted, but when the extremely potent smell lingered, I knew I had met my rival. I soon learned that some of the samples were from the Bagmati and Vishnumati rivers - a place where Hindu's burned the dead and disposed of remains into the river. In order to even test the sample, it had to be diluted to 1:100.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to 6 sites throughout the Kathmandu Valley to collect data on air quality at these locations. I've had the opportunity to meet a couple people at the office already. They are all extremely knowledgeable and very friendly. Please pray that I might be a positive influence on the people here. Most of them don't wear 'tika'. No deep conversations so far, but I Thessalonians 4.

I really enjoy working and had a load of fun in the lab testing water samples today. They developed a lot of waste water treatment systems - Including a bio-sands Arsenic treatment solution that doesn't use electricity. It's a continuous flow solution that utilizes gravity - try looking it up online "Environment and Public Health Organization" (ENPHO). Piyush is also a rival to 'pristine' but at a fraction of the cost. The way they do things here are pretty in your face. They work hard to get results then they take advantage of every opportunity to share this knowledge with the public to try to get them to rally against bus drivers (to lower their emissions) or the government or whoever who is damaging the environment. There is a lot to be learned from this bold attitude. Perhaps I need to develop a greater fervency for the study of Scripture and to make finding known to the world at every opportunity - even to a point of creating own outlets.. actually not creating rather discerning outlet's God has planned.

Ride home was interesting, took the safa (clean in Nepali) tempo. It's a 3-wheeled device barely seats 10 ppl with heads bowed. There are 2 bench seats facing one another paralell to the road. It's rather claustrophobic, but only 8Rs. I was lucky and had only 10 ppl aboard, it was already a bit too cozy for me, but I'm getting used to smelling ppl. Makes me feel less bad about farting.

Changed safa tempo's at RNAC (Royal Nepali Airlines Company (?)) Although, it's no longer royal. I think it's just Nepali airlines.

Anyway, it's really bad here. The streets are full of pollution and it's a really broken city. It seriously pains me to walk through the streets here to see such 'wrongness'. This is partly the reason why I'm so glad to be working for an organization that advocates the preservation of God's creation. I hope to share this with more co-workers.

OH yes, and the ENPHO building produces no waste water. They recycle it ALL (grey and black). Anyway, it for now. Long day tomorrow. Oh yes. Nirita, the lady showing me stuff in the lab and who will be leading the testing at the 6 sites tomorrow was explaining why people are so tired in Kathmandu. There's a lot of NO(sub x) nitrous, nitrogen dioxide, etc. in the air, especially through one intersection that I have frequently walked through. In NA, NO is as an inhaled anesthetic - put two together and that's why I'm tired after walking in the streets. That's also why 8+ hours of sleep doesn't seem to cut it for me.

Prayer items:
1. Physical: I'm eating a lot of CHO and I think my stomach's starting to rebel against the mass quantity of it. Nepali's eat A LOT! They eat plates of rice + CHO. I've limited myself to half a plate.
2. Spiritual: continued quite time in the mornings. It's been difficult to get quiet times here with city streets and very open home atmosphere. But it's been a blessing too. You've probably thinking of saying to me - stop insulting JC. That's what He came for community.

So yes, you can pray that I learn what it means to live in community - likes and dislikes all the same. Reading out of psalms but I think I need to read more. This is a very Hindu dominant country. From the names of people to their dress and traditions it's all Hindu it's a part of being Nepali. There's a celebration of rice for 5-month old girls and 6-month old boys. It's supposed to be the time when they are said to start eating solid foods.